Published on September 29, 2024
 Transcendental meditation | Abstract Transcendental Meditation started in the 1950’ in India and conquered the whole world promoting a quick solution to stress, pain, anger, violence, illness etc. Today we will focus on two perspectives, didactic and psychological, to understand how a meditation technique offers a vision on religion and how people tend to embrace it and to apply it in day-to-day situations.
Perspectives on Behavioral Science of Religion |
TM = Transcendental Meditation
I. Introduction and Objectives
Religion, in its deeper form and content, can be considered a solution to all problems that society faces from its apparition on Earth, acting as a system of rules and laws that can be applied to all domains, such as didactic and psychological (we need to point out that the first schools have been born around the churches and monasteries), and many more, that can keep in balance three elements: God, nature and humanity (Bruce, p. 76).
Some of us, with the desire to deny all is connected to the idea of religion, chose to call ourselves atheists (in a statistics performed at a British university, 34 per cent of the respondents declared themselves to be atheists) (Bruce, p. 190), thinking that, in this way, will reject all the elements that are connected in one way or another to God (no matter if we name Him: יהוה, Dumnezeu, Allah, Lord, Elohim or The One), but adopting in life another kind of forms of spirituality whose inception reside in religion as well such as yoga, Reiki, bioenergy or crystal healing, just to name few of them.
There is a need for religion even though in his book, God is Dead, Steve Bruce enunciated the idea that nowadays religion slipped into the field of caricature (Bruce, p. 19), but this need can be seen in many areas of everyday life such as working places (multinational companies provide spiritual training for their employees to raise their productivity), schools (some teachers chose to follow mindfulness courses to discipline their students, not using coercive methods, but kind ones) or self-development (though Britain is presented as one of the most secularized countries (Bruce, p. 60), one can find a plethora of courses that can help to self-improvement, for exemplification, see: https://www.centreofexcellence.com).
People’s preoccupation with well-being was observed during the 1960’ period that recorded a growing interest in psychotherapy, yoga, and meditation with the peak of absolute fame in 1968 when The Beatles travelled to India to meet Maharishi Yogi the one that promoted a technique (McGuire, p. 14) with its roots in Hinduism, called Transcendental Meditation, which promised a quick and effective solution for various medical affections such as sleeping disorders, anxiety, arrhythmia, addiction, depression and PTSD symptoms.
In this paper, we will focus on two perspectives regarding Transcendental Meditation, the didactical and the psychological one, trying to point out the results of practising TM as well to understand the role that religion still plays in our society and how these aspects of religion can be used in improving life quality and can be applied to different types of environments such as schools, working places, prisons or army.
II. Results
II.1. About Transcendental Meditation
There are many stories about how Transcendental Meditation came to the public attention, after its founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (who had a degree in Physics from Allahabad University) spent, saying the legend, a few years with his master in the Himalayas and was enlightened with new learning that will become the favourite type of meditation for many celebrities during the following years (Wikipedia Contributors). But the most accurate account can be found on TM.org (“How Did Maharishi Discover TM? | Transcendental Meditation”) saying that Maharishi started to promote TM (Transcendental Meditation) in 1955 after he spent 13 years with the most important Vedic master of his time.
A simple search on the Internet about TM will reveal that there are more than 10 pages of articles about this meditation technique, and one will find that many celebrities embraced TM as a simple way of solving their problems, which, at first glance, can be seen as a pure paradise.
To learn how to use TM you need a teacher / a guru (guru = a religious leader or teacher in the Hindu or Sikh religion) (Cambridge Dictionary) who, following a ritual, will give you a mantra (mantra = especially in Hinduism and Buddhism, a word or sound that is believed to have a special spiritual power) (Ibid.) that you need to say and think only to during the meditation sessions, which are two per day during 20 minutes each.
Compared to other types of meditation, TM does not require attention nor endeavour from the meditator’s side, and for some people, it seems to be stronger than a Christian prayer, if we were to believe those who confessed this. (McGuire, p. 78)
The interest towards TM has seen growth since its apparition in the 1950’ being endorsed by Hugh Jackman, Ellen DeGeneres, Cameron Diaz, Aziz Ansari, Gisele Bündchen, Lykke Li, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Oprah, Sheryl Crow, Paul McCartney, Clint Eastwood, Mick Jagger, Heather Graham, and culminating with David Lynch. (“Inside the Blissed-Out, Tight-Lipped, Spiritual Movement That Has Hollywood Obsessed”), and with such famous advocates, it is no wonder this technique has massive success among people who thrive to add a positive change to their lives.
But this aspect is not the one that this paper wants to talk about, rather I want to focus more on scholarly views trying to approach TM from didactical and psychological perspectives.
II.2. Didactical Perspective on TM
The influence of religion in its classical form can be seen very clearly throughout history: writing was sacred in Ancient Egypt being reserved only to a few people and giving them power over others; Jewish tradition requires that boys should learn Torah ten years before Bar Mitzvah to have the education of their ancestors and to find out studying Biblical words an answer to their daily problems; during Medieval era, monks were those who copied Latin and Greek manuscripts preventing them to be lost forever.
In the present time, people tend to place themselves far from the traditional Church that for many represented the quintessence of what is in general called religion and to find new forms to express religion, some of them borrowed from other religions (such as Buddhism and Hinduism) and to adapt them to their needs for happiness and wholeness.
Transcendental Meditation can be considered a manifestation of an adaptation because Maharishi delivered this technique using Hindu meditation and its mantra but excluding completely the endeavour that is required by Mindfulness meditation which draws its roots from the Buddhist religion. This technique, which promised to relieve people from various types of problems, captured the attention of the specialists in education that started to use it in the school environment hoping to provide a simple and effective method for students and teachers as well.
A search on Google Scholar typing “transcendental meditation in schools” will find, since 2018, 16.700 results aiming to present TM in a didactic context that can be proof of how this technique can be used in classrooms as a way of educating students or to improve their mental condition.
The most recent article dated 7th December 2022 having the title Implementing the Transcendental Meditation Technique in A School Setting Helps Secondary School Students Improve Mental Health and Well-Being states that the results showed positive outcomes (Sin Ting Ng et al.) for the researched domain, which is a good thing but not sufficient to conclude that TM can be written on a recipe as a panacea for all humankind, and, besides this, because of its Hinduist provenience TM may be in contraction to Christian Church.
Another article on Google Scholar relating the same subject of TM reveals positive results when this meditation technique is applied in the classroom, showing that the use of QT (quiet time) improved the executive and emotional skills of the students. (Gabriella Conti et al.)
There is a time to specify that the methods of measurement used are the empirical ones, which cannot provide accuracy to the reported results.
Though is not ostentatious religious, TM cannot be delivered to the future meditator by signing a simple contract or another secular document, but through participating in a ritual which is performed in Sanskrit by the guru who will previously ask the attendant to bring with them some fresh flowers and one white handkerchief, even though the meaning of these gifts are not fully explained nor presented in details, and the given mantra should be kept secret.
Stating this, the above-named articles – which are two different versions of how religion can be used in the educational system as a tool for better results and improved performance of the students who are participating in this method of education – omitted to present how the participants were initiated in the TM technique and, in the case they were minors if their parents have approved for their children to receive this ritual, even for a noble cause such as education.
The study presented in the first article has been performed in Thailand, whose main religion is Buddhism, on a group of students aged between 12 and 16 years, which have been previously taught to practice TM by authorised teachers. So, in this case, the core of transcendental meditation is somehow complementary to the religion practised by the participants.
But the second study presented in the article mentioned TM only in the title, having the care to use the syntagm QT (quiet time) for the experiment performed, and using from TM only the concept of quietness and quieting the mind. In this second study, the participants are from Ireland and UK and, as we know, in these areas religion is mainly based on Christianity (some of the Christian priests, Catholics and Orthodox, disapprove[1] of the use of TM despite the positive results of it, as we will see). Though TM’s representatives argued in court that this technique is not a religious one (McGuire, p. 14), the base of it indicates its connection to Hindu meditation even if one will take into consideration the mere aspect of the mantra.
II.3. Psychological Perspective on TM
At a glance, the term religion consists of a group of traditions that changed over time, starting with animism, and reaching the present era when quantic physics seems to include all the religious theories that emerged throughout history, but the psychological perspective over religion seems to be a continuum that connected many theories that approached the concept of psychology of religion.
In talking about the psychological perspective on TM, I chose two studies that present how this technique can be applied in the contexts of stress in the workplace and anxiety. In both cases, the participants were adults, and the outcomes were measured using a sphygmomanometer and questionnaires.
The study presented in the first article used TM to reduce psychological stress and, implicitly, blood pressure in a working place to improve the productivity of the participants and the relationships between them. Using all the transcendental meditation’s requirements, the participants were able to calm down their minds and cope better with stress, so the outcomes of the study were positive recommending TM to be used in the workplace routine as an agent for stress management. (Woods-Giscombe et al.)
The second article focuses on the problem of anxiety in post-menopausal women and how TM can relieve or reduce this issue. The group of participants were women between 50 and 55 years and the collected results (questionnaires) were presented via statistical methods showing that TM itself helped to reduce anxiety by 8.24 %. (N. Vijayalakshmi et al.)
Both studies provided good results for the researched subject pointing out that Transcendental Meditation can be used with some success in psychological problems such as anxiety, and stress and, connected to these, raised blood pressure.
What these studies do not specify is to which degree the participants were true believers from a religious point of view or they just had faith in some other principles. (Wulff, p. 36) But despite their beliefs, there is a piece of true evidence that TM is acting in a positive way relieving the participants from their problems.
Though not psychological or religious, TM contains both directions pointing out a state of calm for coping with stress.
The effects of meditation practised in various forms (Wulff, p. 104) are not only positive but quite valuable as a way of living, though in the Buddhist tradition the monks and Dalai Lama do not perform TM but a mindful meditation that can improve the intellectual abilities of the practitioner. (Wulff, p. 70)
The main thing that we can observe is QT (the quiet time) which both types of meditation imply, which is the key to positive change regarding anxiety and stress at the workplace not keeping account of the religious part of it nor of the placebo effect that can be delivered by this type of practice.
Though TM claims about itself that is not religious, we observed that during the ritual performed in Sanskrit by a guru who will later deliver the mantra there are enough facts to place this type of meditation under the umbrella of religious things.
Having in mind that a suffering person (no matter if their illness is life-threatening or a mere one such as a mild anxiety disorder?!) has the will to do everything to reach relief, the TM can be resumed to the psychological aspect of it and can be presented in a low degree as a religious practice (this is the approach that one will meet if would read the presentation on the TM Organisation website).
III. Discussion / Summary
Even though today’s world finds itself away from religion in its primal state as we broadly understand it, promoting the attitude that Anthony Wallace stipulated: “the evolutionary future or religion is extinction”, people seem to adopt different paths, many of them connected in a way or another to religion for improving their lives or to bring a little sunshine to the anxiety shadows. (Wulff, p. 1)
Allopathic medicine is not long enough the only method to cure a disease, more than this, the human being is a fantastic machinery that cannot be studied piece by piece but as a whole with a wonderful complexity sometimes impossible to be explained.
Humanity, even the one that declares atheists or non-believers, thrives for being nurtured and to be cared of, and that force, no matter what Its name is, appeared to be the subject of a new domain that electrified scientists’ minds: quantic physics. At a simple session of TM’s presentation, one will find out that there is something called string theory, a nebula of physics that brought together all the unexplained things that mark our world: intuition, telepathy, sensations, emotions, and love.
IV. Bibliography
Bruce, Steve. God Is Dead: Secularization in the West. Oxford, Blackwell, 2011.
Cambridge Dictionary. “Guru.” @CambridgeWords, 21 Sept. 2022, dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/guru.
Gabriella Conti, et al. “Feasibility, Acceptability, and Initial Effects of the Quiet Time Transcendental Meditation Program: Evidence from Two School Pilots.” UCL Discovery, 2020.
“How Did Maharishi Discover TM? | Transcendental Meditation.” Https://Transcendental-Meditation-Th.org/Who-Is-Maharishi/, transcendental-meditation-th.org/who-is-maharishi/. Accessed 12 Dec. 2022.
“Inside the Blissed-Out, Tight-Lipped, Spiritual Movement That Has Hollywood Obsessed.” Thrillist, www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/transcendental-meditation-hollywood. Accessed 12 Dec. 2022.
McGuire, Meredith B. Religion: The Social Context. Belmont, Ca, Wadsworth Thomson Learning, 2008.
N. Vijayalakshmi, et al. “Effect of Yoga Nidra and Transcendental Meditation on Anxiety Level of Post-Menopausal Women.” Journal of Xi’an Shiyou University, Natural Science Edition, vol. 18, no. 6. Google Scholar.
Sin Ting Ng, et al. Implementing the Transcendental Meditation Technique in a School Setting Helps Secondary School Students Improve Mental Health and Well-Being. 7 Dec. 2022.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Dec. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharishi_Mahesh_Yogi.
Woods-Giscombe, Cheryl L., et al. “Workplace Meditation Interventions for Reducing Psychological Stress and Other Cardiovascular Risk Factors: Workplace Wellness Policy Implications.” Current Cardiovascular Risk Reports, 3 Nov. 2022, 10.1007/s12170-022-00708-9. Accessed 19 Nov. 2022.
Wulff, David M. Psychology of Religion: Classic and Contemporary. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1997.
For this study I performed two interviews with two Orthodox priests from Bucharest, Romania, who clearly expressed their disagreement with using TM by Christian Orthodox believers. The Catholic priest that I interviewed confessed that he had not the knowledge to talk about this subject, so he refrained to give his opinion. ↑
